Chetan Bhagat

Progressive and value-based society that puts excellence and integrity over narrow goals and materialistic gains is the new, young India, and not just someone falling in an age bracket, says novelist and columnist Chetan Bhagat who has launched his first non-fiction.

"I think anyone who is progressive is young. You may be in your 20s but highly regressive in thinking and that wouldn't be young for me. Demographically we might have the largest number of youth today but thinking forward is the way forward for India," says the author.

After five novels, Bhagat has ventured into nonfiction with his new book released late last evening here.

"What Young India wants: Selected Essays and Columns," published by Rupa Publications, is a compilation of his speeches and writings over the past few years.

According to Bhagat today's young India wants a good life, a good job and romance -- "meri naukri, meri chokri".

"The youth want to first fulfill their own needs and only after that are they willing to support a certain cause.Today's youth wants a good well-paying job ('naukri') and a nice girlfriend ('chokri') in a decent urban city. I don't think there's anything wrong with that but what is important is to earn that living honestly, with integrity and excellence and without compromising the core values that build our society," Bhagat said.

The book, says Chetan Bhagat elucidates a new category of people, which has emerged in the country.

"In India we have separate categories if someone wants to be good or be an honest person, then they have to be poor. All activists have to be poor and if you are rich then you are bad. But I don't think that's the way forward for this country.